Cloudcroft letter gives insight into family's history

CLOUDCROFT Letters to parents helped a daughter understand her father and gives a new perspective in post-World War II American and Jewish history.

New Mexico filmmaker Melinda Hess produced "Letter from Cloudcroft: Lost and Found Memories of My Father."

And, Saturday, Hess read a sealed letter from her father, which was written to his parents 66 years ago.

Hess' father, Sanford Oscar Hess, was involved with research and testing, assigned to work on the V2 rockets in Fort Bliss, Texas

"Several years ago, I was going through some random boxes inside. It was an old suitcase inside the suitcase were a bunch of letters. I started reading them out loud to Patricia," Melinda Hess said.

She found about 40 letters written by her Sanford Hess addressed to his parents living in New York City in 1946.

"I asked my partner to hand me a letter-opener and she ran across the room and said 'you are not opening it' and I asked why," Melinda Hess said. "Patricia said, one day you are going to open it on camera.'"

Hess said that's when the idea of the documentary began. She said the whole idea of this film is a two-person perspective, one from her father from his letters talking about his experiences in the region and the other is her story telling the story from a contemporary perspective. This is the fourth year of the documentary's production.

Sanford Hess was the first American engineer to be assigned to work with the German Nazi rocket scientists.

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He was a 21-year- old, second-generation German-Jew from New York at the time the letters were written.

"The thing I found shocking is that he admired I think a great deal the intellect of the German Nazi rocket scientist. They were smart guys and he was a smart kid," Melinda Hess said. "He speculates, at one point, 'I wonder if they know I am Jewish and he doesn't say much more about it after that."

"We decided to finally open the letter at the Lodge in Cloudcroft where the unopened letter was originally written. The three-page letter opens, "Dear mom and dad, I'm writing this while sitting next to the fireplace and listening to the radio. It's pre-supper time at Cloudcroft."

Melinda Hess said her father's writing in the letter was just as sweet and conversational as his other letters.

He wrote about his experiences, what it was like eating Mexican food for the first time going to Cuidad Juarez, what it was like drinking with the German scientist, who Melinda said, were "essentially were prisoners which Hess' father had to supervise on and off the base.

He wrote about his outings with the German scientist outside the base.

The event in Cloudcroft was a humanities forum that had scholars from across the country to discuss several topics related to family Jewish and military.

"It's not a story that a lot of people know. The point of the film is through the personal story of my father's story and my story. We have an entrance into that bigger story that is historic, national and international."Reach Alex Quintana at aquintana@alamogordonews.com or Twitter @CommunityADN